Entities with substantial printing demands typically implement a high-speed production printer for volume printing (e.g., one hundred pages per minute or more). Production printers include continuous-forms printers that print ink or toner on a web of print media stored on a large roll. An ink jet production printer typically includes a localized print controller that controls the overall operation of the printing system, and a print engine that includes one or more printhead assemblies, where each assembly includes a printhead controller and a printhead (or array of printheads). An individual ink jet printhead typically includes multiple tiny nozzles that discharge ink as controlled by the printhead controller. A printhead array is formed from multiple printheads that are spaced in series across the width of the web of print media.
While the ink jet printer prints, the web is quickly passed underneath the nozzles, which discharge ink onto the web at intervals to form pixels. A dryer, installed downstream from the printer, may assist in drying the wet ink on the web after the web leaves the printer. In an electrophotographic production printer, the imaged toner is fixed to the web with a high temperature fuser. Handling the web can prove challenging due to variation of a number of factors.
One such factor occurs when the printer stops printing. Rollers attain high temperature either directly from heaters or indirectly such as from contact with a heated web. The heat of the rollers may cause the media to curl when the web is stationary and wrapped around the roller for an extended time period. Thus, allowing a hot roller to maintain contact with the web increases the likelihood of curling. Moreover, different rollers (e.g. temperature, size, shape, profile, texture, or structure) may be needed for different printing conditions (e.g., media types, thickness, materials, processing requirements, etc.). Nonetheless, changing rollers is a slow process, which could affect efficiency of a printing system.
Accordingly, a mechanism to efficiently change web handling rollers in a printing system is desired.